The impact of the COVID virus on one store chain – The Super Bowl as a potential super spreader – Ron Wright – Evening statistics
I went to IKEA today to obtain a bookcase. The virus has affected the shopping experience there in one particular. IKEA, it should be explained, sells furniture that is not pre-assembled. Instead, the article’s components are stored in flat packages, which customers then assemble at their homes after transporting them. The customers go through the store’s showroom to identify the articles of furniture they wish to purchase and then proceed to a warehouse-like area to pick up the corresponding packages. The furniture articles are identified by a model name, a model number, and the aisle and bin where they are located. In the past IKEA provided lined paper sheets and pencils for customers to record their selections on a list – quite useful, since the model numbers run to 9-10 digits and are not easily memorized. Now, however, customers must either rely on their memory or come to the store with paper and pen or pencil of their own. IKEA no longer provides writing materials for fear of increasing the risk of infection from multiple people thrusting their hands into the containers for paper and pencils. The impact of the coronavirus has added several new operating costs to retail stores, so I suspect that they are glad of an excuse to get rid of this one.
We had another potential “super-spreader” event yesterday: namely, the Super Bowl. Generally the Super Bowl affords the basis for gatherings among people who assemble together to watch the game on television. These events, however, are not as widespread as the festivities for Christmas or New Year’s, so any spike in the virus as result of such parties should be moderate in comparison with the ones that occurred earlier this year.
Representative Ron Wright of Texas died yesterday. He is the first sitting member of Congress to die as a result of contracting the COVID virus. (Luke Letlow, of Louisiana, also died in late December as a result of the virus, but he had just been elected; he did not get the opportunity to be sworn in before he succumbed to the disease.) Wright was battling cancer when he was stricken with the virus, so he had several underlying conditions. It is sobering, all the same; he was 67 years old, just one year older than me. As so often happens with this virus, it did its damage with alarming speed: the time between Wright’s being diagnosed with COVID and the date of his death was a bare three weeks.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 106,986,932; # of deaths worldwide: 2,335,341; # of cases U.S.: 27,698,569; # of deaths; U.S.: 476,404. Our infection rate is now over 8.33333%, i.e., just over 1 person in every 12.